Edificio Torres Blancas stands out from the rest of the buildings because of its original and unmistakable construction. It is built with side-by-side cylinders which create semi-circular balconies. When it was built in the 60´s, it was completely different from what had been previously constructed in Madrid, as everything had been a greyish colour and not at all modern. When the project was finished, not everybody liked it. At present, 50 years later, it still provokes conflicting views. This building has its history and we will tell you about it in our section called Places with a lot of History. We have already talked about Edificio Telefónica. Today, we want to include another special building, Edificio Torres Blancas.

TWO IDEAS WHICH WHERE NOT ABLE TO BE CARRIED OUT

Edificio Torres Blancas is located in Avenida de America. It was built at the end of the 60´s by the architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza.

This building is more than 80 metres tall and it has 23 storeys with flats and offices as well as a large terrace roof with a swimming pool. The first thing we ask ourselves is why it was named Torres Blancas as it has only one tower. And why Blancas? Both of these matters where the original idea of Sáenz de Oiza, but unfortunately he was not able to carry them out. The initial project had two towers but due to a number of bureaucratic problems the two towers where reduced to one. The Madrid town hall found it a risk to build the two towers, and so only one was allowed to be built. When the project was finished, white concrete was going to be used to cover the building. However, as it was extremely expensive, this idea was cast aside. Finally, the building was covered with grey concrete, as it still stands today.

A VERY AVANT-GARDE PROJECT

Torres Blancas was too avant-garde for its time. Sáenz de Oiza was asked to create a very avant-garde project and he worked for years till he finished it.

The project had a structure that resembled a tree and the rounded balconies were designed to be the leaves. Sáenz de Oiza had planned to change the skyline of the area and to provoke surprise and admiration with a building which was unlike any other.

He certainly achieved this. In 1974, the building received the prize Premio de la Excelencia Europea. However, it was also critized due to its audacity. Economically speaking, the project was a failure. Sáenz de Oiza had to accept one of the flats as part of his payment and he lived there for the rest of his life. In spite of all, this building is one of our favourite ones in Madrid and we recommend you to visit it.

Picture 1: Álvaro Ibáñez

All other pictures: Metro Centric